talen314: Judging by the list of most popular games at Brainking this may be a Chess variant that would be popular.

But "Mine Chess" as you describe it doesn't have randomness - at least not in the sense of 9 out of 10 games you list. It's just a game without perfect information - more like Logik, Battleboats, Frog Finder/Legs and Espionage, games that currently rank 12, 16, 18, 22, 23, 49, 51, 67, 73, 77, 83. The first Espionage variant comes in at in 51, and I would rank 'Mine Chess' closest to that (of all non-chess variations).

Whether Mine Chess is an interesting variation or not, I don't know, but I don't agree with your popularity argument. New games are, IMO, always fun, but I prefer almost anything above yet-another-chess-variation.